Devotions

When you choose to go with God, everything that once had the power to hold you back must let you go. That’s good news! “Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, ‘The thing comes from the Lord; we cannot speak to you either bad or good. Here is Rebekah before you; take her and go, and let her be your master’s son’s wife, as the Lord has spoken’” (Genesis 24:50-51).

Laban and Bethuel represented the former authorities in Rebekah’s life that once held her back. Yet, now all they could say was, “We cannot say one thing or the other because this comes from the Lord.” In other words, there is no power of hell, no lack, no past experience, no words that have been spoken over your life that can stop you from being all that God has called you to be in Christ! Every prison door must open; all bondages must let you go. All you have to do is get up and listen to the voice of God.

I promise you one thing: You will have an incredible life when you choose to live for God! Yes, when you are determined to follow Him fully, there will be difficult days. Yet when you get to the end of your journey, you will realize that you would not trade a day of it, for you will have brought glory to the name of Christ.

Of course, just as Rebekah, each of us must make the decision to follow Christ fully. It is a personal choice to walk in purity, to be available for the needs of others, to know the Father’s generosity, and to be able to tell others about it. And so the messenger who stands before you, the Holy Spirit, is asking you today, “Will you be a bride that is fit for my Master’s Son?”

Carter Conlon joined the pastoral staff of Times Square Church in 1994 at the invitation of the founding pastor, David Wilkerson, and was appointed Senior Pastor in 2001. 

“You shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness... He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:2-3).

I repeat these words throughout my day: “I live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

If God’s Word cannot be trusted — if the Bible is not the very inspired Word of God — then life is in vain. There can be no hope on the face of this earth.

When this word in Deuteronomy came to Israel, conditions in the wilderness had become very scary for them. God had allowed them to experience thirst and pangs of hunger, and now from the very mouth of the Lord we hear these words: “I humbled you and allowed you to suffer hunger and thirst. Why? All because I sought to make you know you can trust Me. You can live on My promises.”

God was not going to let His people starve or die of thirst. He knew exactly what He would do to deliver them. And, beloved, God also has a plan for your deliverance.

Oh, how we need the Holy Spirit to lead and comfort us in our trying times. Without His presence, His guidance, His daily outpouring of strength, none of us could make it. No human determination can survive the daily testing we endure on the path.

Daily we must cast ourselves upon God’s revealed Word and trust the Holy Spirit to make it become life to us. “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth… He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast” (Psalm 33:6, 9).

The path toward hope is one of suffering, sorrow and pain. No matter how pious, loving or good you are, if Christ is in you, you will become a partaker in His sufferings.

“But rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings” (1 Peter 4:13, my italics). Peter tells us plainly, “Rejoice in your suffering.” And Paul says something similar: “Rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2).

Rejoice in suffering? This is one of those hard sayings of the Scriptures, indeed, one of the very hardest. Yet Paul goes even further: “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations” (Romans 5:3, my italics). Paul isn’t talking here about a shout or exclamation we are to make despite our trial. Rather, what he’s describing is simply being able to see Jesus in our trial. In spite of our very real human fears, in spite of a situation that appears to be utterly hopeless, we can still say, “God will provide a way.”

Some Christians may claim, “The path of hope is simply this: My hope rests in ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory’” (Colossians 1:27). Very true. But if Christ is in us, He is going to lead us into the path that Paul describes. You see, the Holy Spirit wants our hope to be more than a theological phrase. It has to be a hope, a confidence that is steadfast, with a sure foundation underneath. In short, our hope is to be “Christ in us, working in us.”

Paul confirms our right standing with God through Christ: “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation” (Romans 5:10-11).

Though our hearts condemn us, we are told by John, “If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). Let me give an example of this from Jesus’ own life.

The day before Christ was crucified, He washed His disciples’ feet. He told these very imperfect men, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean: and you are clean, but not all of you” (John 13:10). You may wonder: “How could Jesus say these disciples were clean?” Any casual onlooker at the scene would have been astonished by Jesus’ statement. The eleven men He spoke to had already displayed pride, unbelief, selfishness, ambition, covetousness, inconsistency, and vindictiveness. The fact is, Christ made this statement about them because He had chosen them. He had put them on the path to holiness. It was all by grace!

Jesus also knew what was in the disciples’ hearts despite their utter imperfection. Moreover, He saw ahead to the time of brokenness and contriteness they were about to enter.

Let’s say I asked you to list all the sins that these disciples had committed. I believe I could confidently say that you and I have been guilty of all the same sins during certain seasons in our lifetime. Yet Jesus has the answer for us all: “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13, my italics).

According to Paul, when it comes to the subject of hope, the work of the Holy Spirit must be involved. So how do we abound in hope, as Paul prays for us to do? How do we rejoice in hope? And how do we obtain the full assurance of it? A seed of hope is planted at salvation, of course, but there must be a maturing of hope in our walk with Jesus.

The book of Hebrews tells us we have a hope that serves as “an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil” (Hebrews 6:19). In short, the path to hope begins with being fully assured that we are right with God. We are talking about the assurance that we have peace with God. And Paul supplies that assurance, declaring, “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

In a famous old hymn of the church, the writer Edward Mote states, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” Indeed, this is peace: To believe God’s promise that by faith in Christ’s shed blood, He considers (reckons) me righteous. He does so even though I am not perfect. And His righteousness is conferred on me not by any good I have done but by faith alone.

The fact is, you can have no settled peace, no true hope, until you no longer waver about your acceptance in Christ. This acceptance is not based on what your flesh accuses you of being, or what the devil accuses you of being. It is based solely on what God sees you to be in Christ.